Hello Y'all,
I am now as old as my favorite vinyl format is fast. I turn 45 this year. As always I will spend my birthday eating the one meal that will one day certainly kill me… FRIED CHICKEN and all the trimmings. My way, way, way better half either loves me more than I deserve or has devised the slowest and most delicious way in history to get rid of me. My actual birthday is Friday but we will be bellying up to the table Saturday. Speaking of Saturday, it is time for another installment of the Jersey City Record Riot. Last time out I picked up some great records including some long time want list items. I also spun a set and will be back at it again spinning some of those finds from the last Riot between noon and 1PM. For obvious reasons I will be spinning nothing but 45's. Who could blame me. The last Jersey City Record Riot! was great and seemed to have a lot more dealers than the previous one. All I know is I spent a lot of time digging and left very happy.
- pat.
Primitive Sound System
VINYL RULES!
"Audio Visual Triumphs and Disasters" - http://primitivesoundsystem.blogspot.com
JERSEY CITY RECORD RIOT!
Saturday February 26th
Parlay Studios
161 2nd Street
Jersey City
NOON-7PM - I will be spinning from Noon to 1PM
$3.00 admission
$20.00 early admission at 10 AM
40 plus dealers from NY/NJ/PA/CT!
Refreshments served.
Six live DJs.
VERY IMPORTANT:
They have a couple of tables available (and reserved) for "non-professional" dealers, record geeks who just want to sell some stuff and have fun. These tables go for the reduced rate of $40 for an eight foot table (dealers pay 80-90 bucks). Interested parties can email Steve at recordriots@gmail.com for info.
information: irisrecs@gmail.com
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D.C.'s TAVERN - First Thursday of Every Month:
I am putting together a list of, "45, 45's I Can't Live Without - Or, This Is The Greatest Song Ever… for now… Until I Tell You That THIS Is The Greatest Song Ever!" and will be spinning those during my set at D.C.'s Thursday March 3rd from 11:30 to closing following the always entertaining Bronco Billy Dolan.
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SANATON:
One other event I need to mention happens at the end of March. Mark Maloof and I have decided to step out of the rehearsal studio and play in front of living, breathing human beings. I think the walls and the other bands' equipment are getting pretty bored with us so it is probably about time. Mark and I have spent the past seven years just playing for our own enjoyment. If you ever saw Hippopotamus you may have thought then that we were only playing for our own enjoyment and that is not too far from the truth. Hey, if we wanted to sound like the music we like to listen to, we'd just stay home and listen to those bands' records. Or, as is now the case, steal the MP3's and tell everyone how much we love and support our favorite bands. Currently we have no MP3's for you to steal but we assure you if you like things left of center and sometimes discordant than you'll love us. If we do record before the show we will post them somewhere. Hope to see you there.
Poster for the show: http://www.gigposters.com/poster/138720_Sanaton.html
Sanaton - 10PM
Metal Mountains - 8PM
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
Admission is $5 - (There are special admission rates for students and children)
The Stone - Corner of Ave C and 2nd Street
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45's at 45: (Some favorites that I have never written about)
Hunt's Determination - "I Need Love" (Ear Wax cat. W? - 005)
Don't let the title fool you, this is no ballad. I got this as a gift about twelve or fifteen years ago. It still stands as one of my favorite records in my collection. First off, it is one of the few Funk Instrumentals I own with a picture sleeve. From what I can tell that the band consisted of about fifteen or sixteen people. What is also obvious, looking at the photo on the cover, is that not only is winter in Flint, Michigan cold but when it snows even your giant ass station will get trapped. "I Need Love" opens with a weepy guitar followed by an aggressive introduction of the other instruments with some nice dynamics. Despite the cover photo the band seems to consist of Organ, drums, bass, guitar and percussion. The song is balls out and Funky as hell from start to finish. These mother-fuckers are attacking each beat and note yet move as one like a gracefully charging monster. Think of being chased by a Rhino and all the time you are in awe of his fleet of foot, gentle moves and focus; transfixed, mesmerized and motionless he runs right through you. This is all I know of Hunt's Determination. They assembled, created and left a deep groove wherever they played.
"Lil" Willie & The Rockin' Imperials - "A Man Don't Last Too Long" b/w "Tell Me Why" (Golden - Records cat. G No. 117)
There is something very Gospel about this track. The background singers open the track with a solo statement of the title, "A Man Don't Last Too Long!" It is chilling and a little spooky. It feels like they are talking to you but looking passed you. As if they know something you need to know but they know you are not going to listen. Over the raw funky backing bass, guitar, drums, horns and a tambourine they repeat this statement throughout the song, exactly the same each time . The tambourine rattles like the chains of a ghost and is unrelenting and repetitive. Lil Willie agrees with the ladies but pleads "man's" case. They state that a man don't last too long and he comes back each time with an observation of the plight of man. Sometimes his plea is a simple statement of fact, "One day he is here and the next day he is gone." Another time he asks us to look and see how hard it is just to be alive and survive, "Everything a man does is an awful big risk, you can see why it is hard for him to exist," And the closer is as finite as our own existence, "One day he is ill and the next day he is gone, that's why some men don't last so long." The ladies, like time, are never ending, they slow down for no one. They continue to repeat their statement and its inevitable conclusion as the song fades. They are the last word.
Busey's Soul Blenders - "Soul Power (Part 1)" (Busey's cat. 2485)
Basically an instrumental but a member of the band does an introduction at the beginning as well as a few geographical shout-outs throughout. Every time I hear this there is something so familiar to it but I can never place it. At first it doesn't seem like Busey and the Soul Blenders are going to pick up enough speed to make it to the top of the hill but suddenly they put a little more into and pick up the pace. Then, suddenly, they are off and BURNING. They state the theme, lean back and take control of the road. The drums command our attention breaking a bit but he is never alone. He is hitting hard and leaving space for the shout outs to be heard. Next the bass is featured and deservedly so. It is fast but not out of the pocket. It is thick and heavy as hell. Next up is the guitar and it takes us off the pavement and into the shoulder as rocks and dust go shooting everywhere before we right ourselves again. Side two tries not to be a fade in but is. It picks up at the end of the guitar freakout and the groove picks up the pace once again. My dreams come true as the Organ and drums get to showoff. Legitimize its massive size and spitting sound in 360 degrees the organ goes from high pitched to low in a very dramatic wave. The drums are pounding and filled with groove. Suddenly everything goes triple time and it's a Latin Groove via the mind of Bo Diddley. Our "singer" is shouting out everywhere the band has ever played when we slip back into the theme but only momentarily before everyone drops out but the kick and a final shout from our singer who reminds us what we have been experiencing…"Soul Power!"
The Mighty Groove Makers - "Let's Dance Some Mo (Part 1) (Peanut Country Records cat. PC 1003)
Another instrumental with some shouted out vocals. My favorite moment in the song happens just a full measure before the break. You can feel some of the players hesitate. It's the raw intensity that you get when a band is playing each take live. They are actually playing with and off of each other. Moving in unison and trying to predict what the other guy will do next. The pause doesn't sound like a mistake, it is barely even noticeable. But it is there, it is a feel and it is so perfect. The recording sounds like it may have been done in my dining room. Not even my kitchen where the acoustic would have been better. Maybe this was recorded in someone's living room which would make it that much more mindblowing to me. I can picture them crowded into a room, sweating and doing what they love, playing music. Recording live gives a presence to the kit which the drummer takes full advantage of at first but he quickly pulls back and allows the guitar and organ to breath. This gives the music a more laid back feeling than its initial upfront Funky one. After the band makes their mighty groove the singer comes in to command the band in a James Brown bag. He reminds the band, "Don't stop now, dance some more." Soon we are counting down to the break and it is at count of three that we get that brief but oh so beautiful pause. The band stops on the count of four on cue and at the break the singer shouts, "It sounded so nice let's do it some more…" And "do it" they do.
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